106 



CHIXA. 



bers include the military establishment, and 

 the crews of ships in the harbor ; and allowance 

 must be made for the circumstance that many 

 of the Chinese evade enumeration, suspecting 

 that there may be some covert design in view 

 in taking a census. The resident European 

 and American population is 2,736 ; 869 of them 

 British, 1,367 Portuguese, 170 Germans, 133 

 Americans, and 60 French. Mr. Stewart, in- 

 spector of Government schools, reports that the 

 number of scholars taught in those schools in 

 1870 was 1,190 boys and 111 girls, the cost 

 being nearly 3,000. The central school had 

 an average attendance of 237, and tbe school- 

 fees for the year amounted to $1,701. Nearly 

 all the first class, and many boys in the second 

 class, were married. The inspector says that 

 their extreme docility makes a school of Chi- 

 nese boys a disciplinarian's paradise. His an- 

 noyance is, that, in case of a marriage or a fu- 

 neral in the family, nothing less than a month's 

 absence is thought sufficient. The school holi- 

 days are now fixed to suit the two most im- 

 portant Chinese holydays viz., the new year, 

 and the tomb-festival. The boys work harM, 

 stimulated by the desire for respectable and 

 lucrative employment. The failures at the 

 annual examination, by obtaining less than a 

 third of the total number of marks assigned, 

 are few. In the course of the year, 95 boys 

 left the school. Of these, 40 are in business as 

 interpreters, clerks, assistant compradores, etc. 

 The village schools, supported or aided by the 

 Government, are purely Chinese schools, using 

 Chinese books alone. Many of the people are 

 in extreme poverty, and the majority of the 

 children do not attend any school at all. The 

 inspector says that, if education were made 

 compulsory, the extreme poverty of many of 

 the people in the villages and in boats would 

 throw on the Government the onus of clothing 

 and feeding as well as educating the children. 

 He adds that this is not peculiar to Hong-Kong ; 

 in the villages on the main-land only a fraction 

 of the children attend school. 



In the province of Tien-Tsin, disastrous floods 

 again occurred, spreading distress and ruin over 

 a large tract of country. According to the 

 opinion of all the geologists who have visited 

 the country, there is no longer any doubt that 

 the gradual upheaving of the northeast of China, 

 which has long been suspected, and to which 

 the change in the course of the Yellow Eiver 

 some years back is attributed, is throwing out 

 all the natural provisions for the drainage of 

 that wide region, and the accumulated waters 

 of the heavy rains of the summer months, 

 Unable to pass away by their accustomed chan- 

 nels, break out annually in disastrous' floods 

 in the autumn, lasting throughout the winter. 

 Unless the foreign ministers at Peking induce 

 the native Government to avail itself of the 

 resources of Western science in discovering 

 the direction in which new channels should be 

 cut, and to apply themselves with energy to 

 carry out the plans competent engineers could 



devise for doing so, it is fearejd that the doom 

 of the country round Peking is pronounced. 



The Emperor of China was married at Peking, 

 on October 16th. There was no public ceremony 

 outside the palace, except the procession to 

 bring the bride thither, and the whole affair 

 passed off very quietly. 



The Panthay or Mohammedan rebels in the 

 western province of Yunnan attracted unusual 

 attention, from the fact that their ruler Sulei- 

 man sent his son Hassan as a special messenger 

 to the courts of Europe, in order to establish 

 friendly connections. Sultan Suleiman, who 

 has now, for several years, been able to main- 

 tain a complete independence, is described as 

 an intelligent and energetic man, who has 

 gained the confidence of his people to a high 

 degree. He resides at Talifu, and rules with 

 the assistance of four military and four civil 

 mandarins. To the former certain districts are 

 assigned, but every matter of importance must 

 be laid before the Sultan, who, before giving 

 his decision, consults the civil mandarins. As 

 soon as Suleiman appeared to have established 

 his rule on a firm basis, Major Sladen was sent 

 out by the Government of British India, in 

 order to explore this territory. In his report, 

 Sladen states that he had an interview with 

 Suleiman, and that the latter expressed to him 

 his wish to enter into commercial relations 

 with the Western countries. The Sultan was, 

 moreover, represented by the English press 

 of India to be desirous to open a good com- 

 mercial and military road between Burmah 

 and Yunnan, and to secure the support of Eng- 

 land in his struggle for maintaining the inde- 

 pendence of his kingdom. The English au- 

 thorities appeared to be anxious to smooth the 

 way for the establishment of friendly relations, 

 and already have opened two steamship lines 

 between Eangoon and Mandelay, the capital 

 of Upper Burmah and Bhamo, the ancient em- 

 'poriuin of the caravan road to Yunnan, where 

 the Dutch formerly had as many as 1,550 fac- 

 tories. In connection with these lines, another 

 between Eangoon and Glasgow has been 

 opened, and thus England is fully prepared to 

 enter into commercial relations with Western 

 China. In order to complete the alliance be- 

 tween Great Britain and Yunnan, the Sultan, 

 probably at the suggestion of the English Gov- 

 ernment itself, resolved to send a grand em- 

 bassy to England. The embassy consisted of 

 Prince Hassan, the son, and Prince Yussuf, 

 the nephew of the Sultan, an interpreter, and 

 five high dignitaries. The embassy is intrusted 

 with a letter from the Sultan to the Queen, in 

 which the latter is asked for her patronage and 

 support. The embassy travelled by land to 

 Mandelay, which journey lasted one month ; 

 then visited Calcutta and Bombay, and from 

 there paid a visit to Constantinople, where they 

 arrived on October 7th. Accounts from Con- 

 stantinople state that the prince recognized the 

 Sultan of Turkey as caliph, and head of the 

 orthodox Mohammedans. 



